Waning Crescent Moon
Waning Crescent MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 10 May 2091 at 08:36.

Strawberry Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2091 after 16 days on 1 June 2091 at 17:31.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1897".

Lunation 1129 / 2082

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1129 of Meeus index or 2082 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 47 minutes and it is 2 hours and 13 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠189.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠189.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠214.7°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 15 May 2091 at 03:48 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 May 2091 at 19:30 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 980 km

The Moon is 404 980 km (251 643 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 863 km (224 851 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 11 May 2091 at 22:03 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 May 2091 at 06:27 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 6 May 2091 at 22:47 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.782° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.883° at the point of next northern standstill on 21 May 2091 at 13:53 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 18 May 2091 at 13:07 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov